January 28th, 2007

Monday morning, 10.30 AM, I get a call from my mom telling that one of my aunts is suddenly in a very critical state and that she has been admitted to a nearby hospital. Since then, I have been staying with my mom at the hospital. The doctors offered very little hope of her survival. On monday night, they called my mom at around 12.15 AM and informed her that my aunt is about 99.99% critical and that they were doing everything under the sun to bring her back. They even got the security signature from my mom.

Tuesday morning, my mom informed me of the updates. As I was talking, some voice (you can call it gut feeling) told me that my aunt is going to be alright. Tuesday night passed out with no signs of any event. The same happened on wednesday night also. Thursday morning, when I went to the hospital, my mom was out to get a cup of coffee… then 3 things happened that validated my thought that my aunt is going to survive.

1. Tuesday and wednesday nights did not have any really critical events. If so, the doctors would have informed us.2. On thursday, one of the nurses gave me a medicine bill and told me to pay for the medicines. If she wasn’t responding totally, then they wouldn’t have given any medicines and they would have informed us too.3. I closed my eyes and prayed for her, for a few minutes. Later I learnt that, around the same time, many of my relatives had also prayed for her recovery

We were allowed to see my aunt for a few minutes when I went to submit the receipts. She was like half dead, gasping for breath… only the sound the sound of the ventilator system echoed through the room. Suddenly, after another 15 minutes, one of the nurses came running downstairs and shouted… “Xxx patient attender yaravadhu irukangala?” (Is there any attender for patient Xxx?). I went with her and to my ultimate surprise saw that my aunt had opened her eyes fully. I went near her and called out, “Aunty, I (Aswin) have come. Are you able to recognise me?” She could hear me as well. She turned her head around and nodded. I was STUNNED.

Life energy was back at full force. Though the fatality was 99.99%, I was convinced that it had reduced a little… may be around 95%? Our prayers, more importantly, our optimism that she will survive, helped a lot. The ventilator system is still humming besides her. She has just started to respond a little for all the efforts of the doctors. No doubt that she is critical even now, but these events over the last few days seemed to convey the message that she will survive. Please pray for her safe recovery.

January 21st, 2007

Hi guys, I’m back from this amazing event called proto.in 😀 and being part of the organising team did a lot of good to me.

The EventThe whole day consisted of demonstrations of 30 different products from 30 different companies. Many of them did manage to finish up in the stipulated 8 minutes. There was no Q & A session after the presentation. It was left for the audience to network with the guys doing the presentation. For most of the companies, it was the first time they had to present their product within 8 minutes, something that Atul Chitnis calls, “The elevator pitch”, and many of them did a good job at it.

Some of my favourite presentations were SEraja, spoteazy, desicrew, tracbac, deeprootlinux, novatium and some more companies whose names I’m unable to remember right now. Those companies who did well answered some questions like, “What problem they are solving with the product?”, “What is the differentiating factor of the product?”, “What they are looking for from an event like proto?”. Precise answers for these questions and a quick demo was all they did to capture the attention of the audience.

Good Things about the eventMet a lot of good old barcamp buddies, some of whom turned out to be angel investors :D. Arjun and Arun, who soft-launched Taazza at BarCampChennai last March, now have a kick arse full fledged news product. Good going guys! What’s a bit surprising though is that there is no support for IE, which is still the most popular browser

Got lots of inspiration to start working on some of the crazy ideas that had been occuring off late. Also realized that, there are lots of people ready to fund your product. But then, one thing to remember is to answer the “Why?” question before proceeding to build the product.

Overall, its been an amazing experience to be a part of the proto.in team. This event will return soon in all its glory, only getting better than this next time.

January 18th, 2007

I’m back after a long break 😀

Whoa! the proto.in team has come a long way. With just a day more to go for the event, I’m really so damn excited to see the 30 technology companies, who are going to be the next big wave, pitching on the D-day. As a personal interest, I’m very interested what the Indian mobile space has to offer.

For the professionals who are not going to attend, it will be a day they will regret. Watching the evolution of products and technology is a boon in itself :). The event is taking place at the ICSR Auditorium in Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. By the way, this is not a free event. If you want to attend, head on to http://www.proto.in/register. I will be going there on sunday. Drop a line if you are attending too.